Posts Tagged ‘WINTON WETLANDS’
COOPER+SPOWART+MARCHBANK SHORT-FILM WINS AWARD
“CLICK” to view the YouTube video of the winning short-film “BEING PRESENT – Mokoan: Wet”
.
Cooper+Spowart and Bree Marchbank have just won FIRST PRIZE in Section 4: Photography and Digital Works in the 2026 Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum.
.
.
THE BACK STORY OF THE WORK
Many of you will be aware of how Mokoan, (also known as Winton Wetlands) in northern Victoria, has become our muse over the last 5 years. While our previous creative responses have been resolved in artists books and framed diptychs, our recent work is a short film.
In this work we continue to explore the continuing flux of presence and absence in the environment of Mokoan as well as the concept of Being Present in the landscape. Our submission was accompanied by the following statement:
Being present in the landscape is the moment where we lose ourselves – corporeality evaporates, and the physical space becomes a psychological state. A poetic and aesthetic conversation arises through observation, walking and deep reverie with the land and its multi-layered historical and ecological narrative. This place is neither still nor silent; the air and land is dynamic, filled with sound and movement.
The impetus to work on this project came from Nikki James, Yorta Yorta Nation Elder and Traditional Owner, currently the Koorie Cultural Engagement Officer at Mokoan Winton Wetlands. She invited us to present our work at a NAIDOC event she was planning in July this year.
As the design of the project and initial image sequences were resolved we invited Bree Marchbank, a sound artist who has great empathy with the land, its spirit and narrative, to create a sonic composition to further animate the video. Marchbank’s sound combines in situ sampling in the Wetlands, with instrumental and voice work created in response to both being present and the visual narrative of the video.
Our short film was finished and presented at the Wetland’s NAIDOC event on July 10, 2026. Following the premiere of the video we were asked to participate in an impromptu Q&A session – the work was very well received for its communicative ability to present an experience of the Mokoan.
The BEING PRESENT – Mokoan: Wet HD video is 5 minutes 24 seconds duration. Soon after the NAIDOC presentation the video was entered in the Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards at Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum. We selected the Photography and Digital Works section as it also included moving image, animation and soundscape works.
.
.
.
ABOUT THE MARTIN HANSON MEMORIAL ART AWARD
Since its inauguration in 1976, this Award has become one of Queensland’s most prestigious regional art events and is eagerly anticipated each year. The Award acknowledges Martin Hanson who was a popular and highly respected local businessman, a Member for Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Port Curtis 1963-1976, and patron to the Gladstone Artists Club. The Awards cover 4 Sections including: Easel Painting, Works on Paper, 3D & Fibre works, Photography & Digital works as well as many other special awards.
.
ABOUT THE JUDGE
.
Rachael Parsons, Director of New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM). Rachael is an Australian curator, educator and academic. With more than 15 years experience, she has worked as an independent and institutional curator across university, commercial, public and artist-run spaces.
.
.
THE AWARD
FIRST PRIZE Section 4: Photography and Digital Works
Sponsored by the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery
.
BEING PRESENT – Mokoan: Wet – Sample Sequence
.
SEE OTHER AWARD SECTIONS AND PRIZES
Martin Hanson Art Award list 2026 – winners-list
ARTISTS’ STATEMENTS ABOUT THEIR PRACTICE
Portrait by David Williams
For Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart collaboration is a dynamic space to test and challenge their individual creative practice and explore new and unchartered territory. They are informed by Charles Green’s book The Third Hand, where he proposes that collaboration creates a new entity full of potential and possibilities.
Over time their collaboration with Nature and the non-human has deepened and broadened their perceptions of Being-in-the-world. Their practice of Being is fully engaged with Nature.
Bree Marchbank with gong Photo by Doug Spowart
Bree Marchbank approaches sound creation as ritual and collaboration, using improvisation to explore connections to place. The sound developed through a devotional practice which included field recordings and attentive listening in community and nature.
Her recordings capture the living presence of place, with and without instrumentation, creating sonic textures, and relational gestures that invite deeper connection and shared experiences for the audience. The sound reflects repeating patterns that mirror organic processes of emergence and transformation.
.
.
.
OTHER COOPER+SPOWART WORKS IN HANSON ART AWARDS
.
2023 Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award – Works presented
MARTIN HANSEN MEMORIAL ART AWARDS: Our Works
.
2020 Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award – Winner of 2 Awards – Works on Paper
COOPER+SPOWART books win ‘works on paper’ Awards
.
2010 Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award – Winner of Works on Paper
SEE REFERENCE to the artwork Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788
BRITISH LIBRARY Acquires our cyanotype artists’ book
.
MAGGIE HOLLINS: An artist in the Winton Wetlands
Maggie Hollins in Winton Wetlands Photo: Doug Spowart
.
In my current practice I aim to observe, absorb, and have a conversation with, a place. I document the physical and intangible qualities of the landscape and use the materials I find at that place to honour its essence. I want to draw more attention to the need for a biotic interaction with our surroundings.
Since 2016 I have been inspired by the Winton Wetlands. I have documented the changing seasons and evidence of previous habitation at the Winton Wetlands with my photography. My engagement with the Winton Wetlands has led to the creation of woollen wall hangings and ephemeral artworks at the site. Found materials I have used in this exhibition will also become ephemeral works when I return them to the Winton Wetlands.
I have long been aware of the Winton Wetlands but it was not until 2016 that I engaged fully with the site. I visited the site often and became a Friend of the Winton Wetlands which allowed me to see some projects up-close being completed. I did some ephemeral works at the site and some felted works inspired by the wetlands. One felted work is included in this exhibition.
2022 saw my renewed interest in the site and together with colleagues, Doug Spowart and Victoria Cooper, we set out to discover the intricacies of site. This exhibition is the result of our collaboration.
.
ABOUT MAGGIE HOLLINS’ WORKS
Maggie Hollins with “Harmony” PHOTO: Doug Spowart
.
Guided by the water, tree branches and barks, fallen feathers, leaves and grasses, I have participated in the narrative of the Winton Wetlands.
.
Maggie Hollins’ ‘Recognition of the Past”, “Shelter” &”The Dead Stags”
.
These natural elements, coloured ghostly grey on my textiles are a spectral testimony to their origin. The found metal shards authored the presence of others’ existence and together with the natural elements these works were fused by the hot sun. My textile works aim to celebrate the resilience and vitality of the wetlands ecosystem while eliciting the many distant voices of this special place.
.
.
Maggie Hollins “Drifting on a Current” Photo: a collaboration
.
Feathers drift and amass in favourite resting places in the wetlands. I have often watched in awe at the murmuration of birds in the wetlands. My kinetic work aims to evoke a floating pattern of flight.
.
.
I have attempted to use my collage works as a metaphor for the layered past of the site to script stories of drought and flood, along with species that have occupied the wetlands.
.
.
The simple woven works aim to invoke the symbiosis binding all existence. The found materials will become ephemeral works when I return them to the site.
.
Maggie Hollins “Layers of the Wetlands”
.
.
Winton Wetlands logo
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WINTON WETLANDS VISIT: https://wintonwetlands.org.au/
.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The artists wish to acknowledge the Winton Wetlands team for their support.
We acknowledge the traditional lands of the Yorta Yorta people & their 8 clans the original owners of Country.
We respect their deep enduring connection to their lands and waterways and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.
We honour and respect their ancestors, their Elders past, present and emerging.
.
Most documentation photos and the video b Doug Spowart. The on-location photographs were a collaborative production by all 3 artists.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
